SIPTU will support workers who refuse to assist Israel fixture
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, Greg Ennis, has reiterated his union’s call on the Government and FAI to boycott the proposed Ireland vs Israel Nations League matches or face the likelihood that workers may refuse to assist with the fixture on conscience grounds.
Greg Ennis said: "The genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank are crimes against humanity where future generations will judge each of us on where we stood. International sport is inherently political; it showcases a nation and its people to the world. Israel, as other states have before them, has sought to use the spectacle of sport to hide blood-stained hands.
"Workers in Ireland may well feel it goes against their understanding of humanity, of empathy, and of opposition to supremacism to assist in the transport, servicing, disembarking, or in any other way facilitate a visit of the representatives of the State of Israel to Ireland. This is a matter of conscience, which, if they are Union members, we will seek to support them in.
"Just as with the automobile worker in the US, whose proud union, the UAW, ensured he retained his job after telling Donald Trump what most of the world thinks of him as he toured a US automobile plant in Michigan in January earlier this year, conscience must sometimes be acted upon."
He added: “What the Government and FAI must remember is that while they may be willing to welcome Israel’s sporting representatives to our shores, they do not speak for the majority of the footballing community or the Irish people. If the FAI and the Government do not see sense and boycott these games, they shouldn’t expect footballers or other workers to follow them into infamy.”
SIPTU has previously raised "serious safety concerns" regarding the fixture, arguing that the FAI's duty of care to workers should preclude the match from going ahead. The Union maintains that the FAI must show consistency, noting that the association previously called for the exclusion of Israeli teams from international competition.